Indigenous people are content to display ancestral skulls, and restrictions are a European cover-up.

The finding

What the evidence shows

Indigenous communities themselves are leading the push to get ancestral skulls out of museum displays and back home for reburial. Examples include Māori, Native Hawaiian, Rapa Nui and First Nations groups in Canada. Many say ancestors' spirits cannot rest until the remains are returned, so calling the restrictions a European cover-up does not fit the record. The same reporting does note that not every community wants remains returned, so views are not uniform. A documented case where Indigenous groups broadly asked for skulls to be put on public display, with restrictions imposed over their objections, would flip this.